Encounter at Blackwall Keep
After many days of travel, the party arrived at Blackwall Keep… only to find it under siege by a contingent of lizardfolk. They fought off some of the lizardfolk while an apparition looking like Hohenheim distracted and tricked others. In short order, they routed the lizardfolk and drove them back into the jungle. At the keep, they were welcomed and thanked for their timely arrival. They discovered that the lizardfolk had attacked the keep for the first time in months just a couple weeks ago. One of their men left on an unauthorized mission to the lizardfolk lair to bargain for peace, but returned mad and unstable, attacking his compatriots. Shortly after he had returned, the lizardfolk mounted another attack, this time during the night. They snuck a couple into the keep, killed some of the commanding officers, and captured a handful of others (including Marzena). The ensuing attack injured and killed a number of others stationed at the keep, leaving the keep in disarray. A messenger was sent to call for reinforcements from Sharn, but wasn’t expected back for days. During the party’s battle with the lizardfolk, they managed to capture one alive. He told them how the humans were responsible for the black worms that had infested their last generation of eggs. The great lizard Ilthane is the one that informed them of the humans’ guilt. The soldiers had no idea what he was talking about. The party, having recently come from the Glitterhame, was quick to recognize the similarities between these black worms and the slug-like creatures they found in the abandoned mines. They thought it best to speak with the unhinged soldier that had returned to the keep, who was now being held in a cell in the keep’s basement. Down at the cell, they found the soldier in a nearly-catatonic state. He looked pale and sickly, sitting on the ground, rocking back and forth unresponsively. When they attempted to question him, he gave no response, save for vomitting on the floor and keeling over dead. In his vomit, the party and the soldiers found some black worms, the sight of which sent the lizardfolk prisoner into a panic. He was quickly knocked unconscious and left in another cell. Uncertain what to do, the dead soldier was left in the basement to be dealt with shortly. Siegfried spent time organizing the soldiers and, effectively, taking command. Once they had been given their duties, the party readied for a journey into the jungle to rescue Marzena and the rest from the lizardfolk. Before they could depart, however, Siegfried heard the captive lizardfolk screaming from his cell. Going down the investigate, he came face to face with the newly reanimated corpse of the dead soldier, now infested with black worms that it vomited all over Siegfried. Two managed to wriggle their way under his armor and chewed their way beneath his skin. Luckily, Ixen managed to dig one out with his dagger. The other, unfortunately, began working its way up Siegfried’s spine, toward his skull. Jack produced a bottle of liquid he claimed was his wife Sal’s homemade panacea that should help. Siegfried guzzled it down and immediately stopped feeling the symptoms. In the meantime, the rest of the party prevented the undead creature from leaving the stairwell, destroying it in the process. What they didn’t realize was that the creature had already infected the captive lizardfolk, who proceeded to infect two additional soldiers. The party saved one of the soldiers, but Ixen was forced to kill the other. The lizardfolk, now undead itself, was set ablaze to destroy its body and prevent any further infections. As the party cleaned up the mess and prepared to depart the keep, Jack broached the topic of the party’s deceased friend, Hohenheim. A heated argument between Jack and Siegfried ensued in which Jack criticized Siegfried for not being a good friend to Hohenheim. His insistance and stubbornness on the subject was rather odd. The conversation would have continued had Josephine not stepped in and sternly reminded the two that there were a number of more pressing concerns at the moment, including an infection of undeath, an unconscious party member to resurrect, and kidnapped soldiers to rescue. Temporarily putting their differences aside, Siegfried and Jack parted. The party gave Gin to the keep’s medic to look after while they were gone and trekked off into the jungle as Rohagar followed the lizardfolk’s tracks.